Mozarabic Rite

Dom Marius Férotin, O.S.B. (to whom the present writer is indebted for much help), in his edition of the Mozarabic "Liber Ordinum", dismisses the idea of any Oriental origin, and describes it as a purely Western rite, "the general framework and numerous ceremonies of which were imported from Italy (probably from Rome)", while the remainder (lessons, prayers, hymns, etc.) is the work of Spanish bishops and doctors, with additions from Africa and Gaul. Without accepting the Italian or Roman origin as more than a very reasonable conjecture, we may take this as an excellent generalization. There was a period of development during the seventh century under St. Isidore, who was the moving spirit of the Council of Toledo (657-67), to whom certain masses are attributed, and St. Julian (680-90), who, according to his biographer and successor, Felix, wrote a Mass-book "de toto circulo anni", and a book of collects, as a revision of the old books with additions of his own. But after the Moorish invasion, which began in 710, the Spanish Christians had little leisure for improving their liturgies, and, except for some prayers, hymns, and masses attributed to Abbot Salvus of Albelda (tenth century), nothing seems to have been added to the rite from the eighth to the eleventh century. In 870 Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, and afterwards emperor, wishing to see what the ancient Gallican Rite had been like, had priests sent from Spain to say the Toledan Mass before him. In the latter part of the eighth century, the Spanish Rite had fallen under some suspicion owing to quotations cited by Elipandus of Toledo in support of his Adoptionist theories, and the Council of Frankfort (794) spoke somewhat disparagingly of possible Moslem influence on it. Some of the passages still remain, in spite of Alcuin's suggestion that the original and proper readings must have been assumptio and assumptus, not adoptio and adoptatus (or adopticus); but they all can bear an orthodox explanation. It was in consequence of this suspicion that in 924 John X sent a legate (Zanedo, Zannello, or Jannello) to Santiago to examine the Spanish Rite. He reported favourably upon it, and the pope gave it a new approbation, changing only, as Sr. Moraleda y Estaban says (El Rito Mozárabe), the Words of Consecration to the Roman Use. This condition is still observed, but whether that has always been the case since 924 or not, there is no evidence to show. The old Spanish formula is given in the modern books—"ne antiquitas ignoretur", as Leslie says in his notes to the Mozarabic Missal—but the Roman is used in actual practice.

Of the existing manuscripts of the rite, though a very few may possibly be of the ninth century, almost all are of dates between the ratification by John X and the introduction of the Roman Rite in the second half of the eleventh century, during which period the old Spanish Rite held undisturbed possession of the whole of Spain, whether under Christian or Moorish rule. During these centuries the Christian kingdoms were gradually driving back the Moors. Besides Asturias and Navarre, which had never been quite conquered, Galicia, Leon, and Old Castile had been regained, and the Kingdom of Aragon had been formed. In 1064 Cardinal Hugo Candidus was sent from Rome by Alexander II to abolish the Spanish Rite, some vague attempts in that direction having been already made by his predecessor Nicholas II, who had also wished to abolish the Ambrosian Rite at Milan. The centralizing policy of the popes of that period included uniformity of liturgical practice. The Spanish kings and clergy were against the change then, and Bishops Munio, of Calahorra, Eximino of Oca, and Fortuno of Alava were sent to Italy with Spanish office-books, including a Liber Ordinum from Albelda, and a Breviary from Hirache, to defend the rite. The books were carefully examined by the Council of Mantua (1067), and were pronounced not only free from heresy but also worthy of praise. But in Aragon King Sancho Ramirez was in favour of the change, and on 22 March, 1071, the first Roman Mass was sung in the presence of Cardinal Hugo Candidus and the king in the Monastery of San Juan de la Peña (near Jaca, at the foot of the Pyrenees and the burial place of the early kings of Aragon). The Roman Rite was introduced into Navarre on the accession of Sancho of Aragon to the throne in 1074, and into Cataluña a little later. Meanwhile Alfonso VI became King of Castile and Leon, and St. Gregory VII became pope. Alfonso, influenced by the pope, by St. Hugh of Cluny, and by his first wife Agnes, daughter of William, Duke of Gascony and Guienne and Count of Poitiers, introduced the Roman Rite into Castile and Leon in 1077. This was resisted by his subjects, and on Palm Sunday, 1077, according to the "Chronicon Burgense", occurred the incident of "El Juicio de Dios". Two knights—"one a Castilian and the other a Toledan", says the chronicle—were chosen to fight "pro lege Romana et Toletana". The champion of the Spanish Rite, Juan Ruiz de Matanzas, who was the victor, was certainly a Castilian, but it is improbable that the champion of the Roman Rite, whose name is not recorded, was a Toledan, and the Annals of Compostella say that one was a Castilian and the other of the king's party. The "Chronicon Malleacense", which alleges treachery, calls the latter "miles ex parte Francorum", and at the later ordeal by fire in 1090 the Roman Rite is called impartially "romano", "frances", or "gallicano". It is said that two bulls, one named "Roma" and the other "Toledo", were set to fight, and there also the victory was with Toledo.

But, in spite of the result of the trials by battle, Alfonso continued to support the Roman Rite, and a Council of Burgos (1080) decreed its use in Castile. In 1085 Toledo was taken and the question of rites arose again. The Mozarabic Christians, who had many churches in Toledo and no doubt in the country as well, resisted the change. This time another form of ordeal was tried. The two books were thrown into a fire. By the time the Roman book was consumed, the Toledan was little damaged. No one who has seen a Mozarabic manuscript with its extraordinarily solid vellum, will adopt any hypothesis of Divine Interposition here. But still the king, influenced now by his second wife Constance, daughter of Robert, Duke of Burgundy and son of King Robert the Pious of France, and by Bernard, the new Archbishop of Toledo, a Cistercian, insisted on the introduction of the Roman Rite, though this time with a compromise. All new churches were to use the Roman Rite, but in the six old churches, Sts. Justa and Ruffina, St. Eulalia, St. Sebastian, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. Torquatus, the Mozárabes might continue to have their old rite, and might hand it on to their descendants. Flores mentions also the Ermita de S. Maria de Alficen, which is probably the church of St. Mary which Neale says "disappeared, we know not how, some centuries ago." But the rite still continued in the Moorish dominions, as well as in certain monasteries, apparently, according to Rodrigo Ximenes, Archbishop of Toledo (1210-49), even in the Christian kingdoms.

When King James of Aragon conquered Valencia in 1238, he found there Mozarabic Christians using the old rite, and the same apparently happened when Murcia and all Andalusia except Granada were conquered by Ferdinand III in 1235-51. When Ferdinand and Isabella took Granada in 1492, there were certainly some Mozarabic Christians there, as well as Christian merchants and prisoners from non-Moorish countries, but whether the Mozarabic Rite was used by them does not appear. With the discouragement which began with Alfonso VI came the period of decadence. The civil privileges (fueros) of the Toledo Mozárabes, which, though in 1147 Pope Eugene III had definitely put them under the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese, included a certain amount of independence, were confirmed by Alfonso VII in 1118, by Peter in 1350, by Henry II in 1379, and by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1480 (later also by Philip II in 1564, by Charles II in 1699, and by Philip V in 1740). But in spite of this the "Roman Rite prevailed so much that it was introduced even into Mozarabic churches, which only used the old rite for certain special days, and that in a corrupted form from old and imperfectly understood manuscripts This and the dying out of many Mozarabic families gradually brought the rite very low. There was a spasmodic attempt at a revival, when in 1436 Juan de Todesillas, Bishop of Segovia, founded the college of Amiago (originally a Benedictine house, a little to the southwest of Valladolid), where the priests were to use the Gothic Rite. The foundation lasted five years and then became Carthusian. Thus, when Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros became Archbishop of Toledo in 1495, he found the Mozarabic Rite in a fair way to become extinct. He employed the learned Alfonso Ortiz and three Mozarabic priests, Alfonso Martinez, parish priest of St. Eulalia, Antonio Rodrigues of Sts. Justa and Ruffina, and Jeronymo Guttierez of St. Luke, to prepare an edition of the Mozarabic Missal, which appeared in 1500, and of the Breviary, which appeared in 1502. He founded the Mozarabic Chapel in Toledo cathedral, with an endowment for thirteen chaplains, a sacristan and two mazos sirvientes, and with provision for a sung Mass and the Divine Office daily. Soon afterwards, in 1517, Rodrigo Arias Maldonado de Talavera founded the Capilla de San Salvador, or de Talavera, in the Old Cathedral of Salamanca, where fifty-five Mozarabic Masses were to be said yearly. They were later reduced to six, and now the rite is used there only once or twice a year.

When the church of St. Mary Magdalene at Valladolid was founded by Pedro de la Gasca in 1567, an arrangement was made for two Mozarabic Masses to be said there every month. This foundation was in existence when Flores wrote of it in 1748, but is now extinct. At that time also the offices of the titular saints were said according to the Mozarabic Rite in the six Mozarabic churches of Toledo, and in that of Sts. Justa and Ruffina the Mozarabic feast of the Samaritan Woman (first Sunday in Lent) was also observed. Except for the Capilla Mozárabe in the cathedral, all else was Roman. In 1553 Pope Julius III regulated mixed marriages between Mozarabic and Roman Christians. The children were to follow the rite of the father, but, if the eldest daughter of a Mozarab married a Roman, she and her husband might choose the rite to which she and her children should belong, and if she became a widow she might return to the Mozarabic Rite, if she had left it at her marriage. These rules are still in force, and the writer is informed by Don Férotin that the present Mozárabes are so proud of their distinctive rite, involving, as it does, pedigrees dating back to the eleventh century at least, that no Mozarabic heiress will ever consent to desert her own rite if she should marry a member of the Roman Rite. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Mozarabic Rite attracted some attention among the liturgical scholars of the period, and certain dissertations were written and texts published, of which more will be said in the section on manuscripts and editions. In 1842 all the Mozarabic parishes in Toledo except two, Sts. Justa and Ruffina and St. Mark, were suppressed, and their parishioners, something under a thousand in number, were added to those of the two surviving parishes. By the Concordat of 1851 the chaplains of the Capilla Mozárabe were reduced from thirteen to eight, but the continuance of the above two parishes was provided for, and at that time the parochial Mass in these was always Mozarabic. It has almost entirely ceased to be so now, and it is only in the Capilla Muzárabe in the cathedral and in the Capilla de Talavera at Salamanca that the rite can be seen at present—in the former daily (in a High Mass at nine a.m.), and in the latter once or twice a year. Only the Missal and Breviary were published by Ximenes, and only four manuscripts of the "Liber Ordinum" (which contains the services of the Ritual and Pontifical) are known to exist. Hence it is that in all the sacraments except the Eucharist, and in all the occasional offices the Mozárabes now follow the Roman Rite. One effect of the Mozarabic Rite yet remains in the cathedral services of the Roman Rite. According to Simonet (Historia de los Mozárabes de España), the Canto Melódico or Eugeniano, attributed to Eugenius II, Archbishop of Toledo (647-57), is still alternated with the Gregorian plain chant in all the Graduals of the Mass except on ferials, and certain hymns are still sung to the Eugenian melodies. When Jeronimo Romero, choirmaster of Toledo cathedral, wrote his note on the Canto Melódico in Lorenzana's edition of the Mozarabic Breviary of 1775, it seems to have been still more extensively used, but in the specimens which he gives (the beginning of the Gradual for Sts. Peter and Paul) the textus or canto firmo is only a variety of the ordinary plain chant, and the glossa duplex and glossa simplex, which he calls "Eugenian", seem rather too modern counterpoints for the seventh century.

Manuscripts and editions

Of the existing manuscripts of the Mozarabic Rite many, as might be expected, are in the cathedral chapter library at Toledo, but until quite recent times the Benedictine Abbey of Silos, between thirty and forty miles to the south of Burgos, possessed nearly as many. Most of these are now elsewhere, some having been purchased in 1878 by the British Museum, and others by the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale. There are other manuscripts in the Royal Library, in the Library of the Royal Academy of History, and in the Biblioteca Nacional at Madrid, in the Cathedral Library at Leon, in the University Library at Santiago de Compostela, and in the chapter library at Verona. It will be seen from the list which follows that nearly all the existing manuscripts come either from Toledo or from the neighbourhood of Burgos. There is also an interesting collection of transcripts, made from 1752 to 1756 under the direction of the Jesuit Father, A. M. Burriel, from Toledo manuscripts in the Biblioteca Nacional at Madrid. All the original manuscripts are anterior to the conquest of Toledo in 1085, most of them being of the tenth or eleventh century. The arrangement of the books of that period was peculiar. The variable parts of the Mass and the Divine Office, whether sung by the choir or said by the celebrant or the deacon, were usually combined in one book, a sort of mixed sacramentary, antiphonary, and lectionary, usually with musical neumes to the sung portions. Most of the manuscripts are very imperfect, and it is not quite clear under what name this composite book was known. Probably it was called "Antiphonarium" or "Antiphonale". But such books existed also as antiphoners with choir parts only and sacramentaries with the priest's part only, and the usual modern practice is to call the composite books by the descriptive name of "Offices and Masses". They contain under each day the variables of Vespers and Matins and of the Mass. Sometimes one Mass is made fuller by the addition of some of the invariables, as a model of a complete Mass. The Missale Omnium Offerentium, the separate book answering to the Ordinary of the Mass (see Section V, THE MASS), does not exist in any early manuscript, but there is a Missa Omnimoda in the principal Silos manuscript of the "Liber Ordinum", which is a model Mass of the type found in that book. The book of "Offices and Masses" was supplemented for the Divine Office by the Psalter, which in its fullest form (as in the British Museum Add. manuscript 30851) contained the whole book of Psalms, the Canticles, chiefly from the Old Testament, sixty- seven to a hundred in number, the Hymns for the year, and the "Horæ Canonicæ." For the Mass it would seem to require no supplement, but the Prophecies, Epistles, and Gospels are found also in a separate book known as "Liber Comitis", "Liber Comicus" or "Comes". The Prayers of Vespers and Matins and the Prayers which follow the Gloria in Excelsis at Mass are also found combined in the "Liber Orationum", and the Homilies read at Mass are collected in the "Homiliarum", though some are also given in the composite "Offices and Masses". The occasional services of the Ritual and Pontifical are found in the "Liber Ordinum", which contains also a number of Masses. There is one manuscript (at Silos) which contains the Lessons of the now obsolete Nocturnal Office.

The following are the manuscripts of the several books:

Office and Masses.—(a) Toledo, Chapter Library, 35.4, eleventh century. Contains from Easter to the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost. Belonged to the parish of St. Olalla (Eulalia) at Toledo. (b) 35.5, tenth or eleventh century, 194 ff. Contains from the first Sunday of Lent to the third day of Easter week. (c) 35.6, eleventh century, 199 ff. Contains from Easter to Pentecost and feasts as far as SS. Just and Pastor (6 Aug.). (d) Madrid, Royal Academy of History, F. 190, tenth or eleventh century, 230 ff. Belonged to the Monastery of San Milan (St. Æmilianus) de la Cogolla in the Rioja. (e) Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, formerly at Toledo (35.2), eleventh century, 121 ff. Contains the Lenten Offices up to Palm Sunday. Colophon "Finitur deo gratias hic liber per manus ferdinandi johannis presbiteri eglesie sanctarum juste et rufine civitatis Toleti in mense Aprilis." (f) Silos, eleventh century, paper octavo, 154 ff. (g) British Museum, Add. 30844, tenth century. Contains Offices and Masses for the Annunciation (18 Dec.), St. Thomas, Christmas, St. Stephen, St. Eugenia (27 Dec.), St. James the Less (28 Dec.), St. James the Great (30 Dec., but called St. John), St. Columba (31 Dec.), the Circumcision, Epiphany, St. Peter's Chair (22 Feb.), the Ascension, and the Sunday after the Ascension. The Mass for the Annunciation is a model Mass with some of the invariable parts inserted. Homilies are inserted in some of the Masses, and the liturgical part is preceeded by a collection of Homilies. Belonged to the Abbey of Silos. (h) British Museum, Add. 30845, tenth century. Contains Offices and Masses for the Feast of St. Quiriacus (4 or 20 May), and of Feasts from St. John Baptist (24 June) to St. Emilian (12 Nov.), thirty-seven in all, though not all in their proper order. Belonged to the Abbey of Silos. (i) British Museum, Add. 30846, tenth century. Contains Offices and Masses for Easter Week, followed by the Canticles for the same period, and the Hymns for Eastertide to Pentecost, including the Feasts of Sts. Engratia (16 April), Torquatus and Philip (1 May), and the Invention of the Cross (3 May).

Antiphoners.—There is one manuscript which describes itself as "Antiphonarium de toto anni circulo, a festivitate S. Aciscli [17 Nov.] usque ad finem", containing the choir parts, but not the priest's part of the Offices and Masses. This is the book known, quite erroneously, as the "Antiphoner of King Wamba", preserved in the Cathedral Library at Leon. It is a vellum manuscript of the eleventh century (Era 1107 = A.D. 1069), 200 ff., transcribed by one Arias, probably from a much older book, which perhaps did belong to King Wamba (672-80). Dom Férotin describes it as very complete.

Sacramentaries.—(a) Toledo Chapter Library, 35.3, late tenth century, 177 ff. Contains Masses for the year. In the initial of that for St. Peter's Chair (22 Feb.) are the words "Elenus Abbas Acsi indignus scripsit". It belonged to the parish of St. Olalla (Eulalia) at Toledo. Dom Férotin describes it as a Sacramentary, and says that it is complete. An edition by him will soon be published. (b) There is another manuscript at Toledo mentioned but with no identifiable number by Burriel, Eguren, and Simonet, which is said by them to contain "Missas omnes tam de tempore quam de sanctis per totum anni circulum". There is a copy of it among the Burriel manuscripts at Madrid, and Eguren ascribes the original to the ninth century.

Psalters.—(a) Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, formerly at Toledo (35.1), tenth century, 174 ff. Contains the Psalter with antiphons, the Canticles, and the Hymnal. On f. 150 are the words "Abundantius presbyter librum mauro presbytero scriptor" (sic). The prologue of the Hymnal is an acrostic in verse which reads (Mavricvs obtante Veraniano edidyt". This manuscript was used by Cardinal Lorenzana for the Psalter, Canticles, and Hymnal in his edition of the Mozarabic Breviary. There is a copy among the Burriel manuscripts (b) British Museum, Add. 30851, eleventh century. Contains Psalter, Canticles, Hymnal, and "Horæ Canonicæ", the last (though imperfect) being much fuller than the printed Breviary and containing the now obsolete Night Offices, as well as the other Hours and a number of offices for special occasions. It has been edited by J. P. Gilson for the Henry Bradshaw Society. (c) Santiago de Compostela, University Library, Cabinete de Reservados No. 1, dated Era 1093 (= A.D. 1055), "Petrus erat scriptor, Frictosus denique pictor." Contains Psalter, 100 Canticles, and the Night Offices, but not the Hymnal. The Psalter is preceded by a poem addressed by Florus of Lyons to Hyldradus (here called Ysidorus Abbas), Abbot of Novalese near Susa in Piedmont (825-7). There is a full description of this manuscript in Férotin's "Deux Manuscrits wisigothiques de la Bibliothèque de Ferdinand I". (d) Royal Library, Madrid, 2. J. 5, dated Era 1097 (= A.D. 1059). Contains ninety-nine Canticles nearly agreeing with the Compostela Psalter. There is a formula of confession, in which the names of Queen Sancia and the Infanta Urraca appear, and which contain an extraordinary list of sins. The manuscript belonged in the fourteenth century to the Benedictine monastery of St. Maria de Aniago near Simancas, which in 1436 became for a time a Mozarabic chapter (see Section I. HISTORY AND ORIGIN), then to the Colegio de Cuenca at Salamanca. It is fully described in Férotin's "Deux Manuscrits wisigothiques". (e) A Psalter and Canticles of the tenth century, 122 ff., sold at the Silos sale in 1878, present owner unknown.

Liber Comicus, Liber Comitis, Comes, containing the Prophecies, Epistles, and Gospels used at Mass. (a) Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Nouv. Acquis. Lat. 2171, eleventh century. Belonged to Silos from 1067, when it was given to the abbey by Sancho de Tabatiello to 1878. Edited by Dom Morin (Maredsous, 1893). (b) Toledo, Chapter Library, 35.8, ninth or tenth century. Imperfect, containing only from "Dominica post infantum" to the Saturday of the fourth week of Lent. (c) Leon, Cathedral Library. A little earlier than 1071, when it was given to the cathedral by Bishop Pelagius. Begins with the first Sunday of Advent and ends with what it calls "the twenty-fourth Sunday". According to Dom Férotin it is rich in Votive Masses, but incomplete in much else. (d) Madrid, Royal Academy of History, No. 22 (old number F. 192), dated Era 1111 (= A.D. 1073). Written by Petrus Abbas. Belonged to the Benedictine abbey of San Milan de la Cogolla.

Homiliarium.—(a) Toledo Chapter Library, 131 ff., mentioned by Burriel and Simonet. A copy of 1753 is among the Burriel manuscripts at Madrid. (b) Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Nouv. Acquis. Lat., 2176, eleventh century, 390 ff. Contains Homilies from Christmas onward. Formerly belonged to Silos. (c) Nouv. Acquis. Lat. 2177, eleventh century, 770 ff. Contains homilies from Epiphany to Christmas. Belonged to Silos. (d) British Museum, Add. 30853, eleventh century, 324 ff. Contains Homilies and a Penitentiale.

Liber Ordinum.—(a) Silos, dated Era 1090 (= A.D. 1052), 344 ff. Copied by Bartolomæus Presbyter for Domingo, Abbot of San Prudentio de Laturce in the Rioja. Dom Férotin conjectures that it is the very copy sent in 1065 to Alexander II. San Prudentio was a cell of Albelda. Of the four books sent to Rome one was "Liber Ordinum majoris Albaldensis Cenobii", and one of the deputation, Eximino of Oca, was a personal friend of St. Dominic of Silos. The manuscript contains a very full collection of the Ritual and Pontifical Offices and a large number of votive and other Masses. Fully edited and described by Dom Férotin in his "Liber Ordinum". (b) Silos, dated Era 1077 (= A.D. 1039). Written by Joannes Presbyter. Contains Calendar, Baptism, Visitation etc. of the Sick. Commendation of the Deaf, Matrimony, a large collection of prayers and blessings, and Votive Masses. Edited by Dom Férotin. (c) Silos, eleventh century, 142 ff. Contains also Hours, which are offices for every hour of the twelve, as well as Ordo Peculiaris (Aurora), ante Completa, ad Completa, post Completa, ante lectulum, and in nocturnis. Edited, except the Hours, by Dom Férotin. (d) Madrid, Royal Academy of History, No. 56 (old number F. 224), eleventh century, 155 ff. Belonged to San Milan de la Cogolla in the Rioja. Contains a Ritual and a number of Masses. Edited by Dom Férotin.

The descriptions of all the above manuscripts (except those in the British Museum, which the writer has examined for himself) are worked out from those given by Férotin, Ewald and Loewe, Simonet, Eguren, and the list of the Burriel transcripts in Fernandez de Navarrete's "Coleccion de Documentos" (see bibliography). Very full descriptions of the principal manuscripts will appear in Dom Férotin's forthcoming edition of the Mozarabic Sacramentary. The lists of Toledo manuscripts given by Lorenzana and Pinius are too vague for purposes of identification. The four manuscripts (Add. 30847-30850), described in the Catalogue of Additional Manuscripts of the British Museum for 1878 as Mozarabic, are all Roman, three being Romano-monastic and one secular.

Printed Editions: Missale Mixtum or Complete Missal.—Cardinal Ximenes's edition, Toledo, 1500, fol. Alexander Leslie's edition, Rome, 1755, 4to. Caridinal Lorenzana's edition, with Leslie's notes and additional notes by F. Arévalo, Rome, 1804, fol. Reprint of Leslie's edition in Migne, P.L., LXXXV, Paris, 1850.

Missale Omnium Offerentium, containing, besides the "Missa Omnium Offerentium", the Lesser Hours and the Commons. Edition by Lorenzana and F. Fabian y Fuero. Angelopoli (Los Angeles, Mexico), 1770, fol. Reprint, Toledo, 1875, fol. The "Missa Omnium Offerentium" is given also in La Bigne's "Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum", 1609, 1618, 1654; in J. M. Neale's "Tetralogia Liturgica", 1849; in Hammond's "Ancient Liturgies", 1878; translated and edited by T. Kranzfelder in Reithmayer's "Bibliothek der Kirchenväter", No. 215, 1869, and in J. Perez's "Devocionario Mozárabe", Toledo, 1903.

Breviary.—Cardinal Xímenes's edition, Toledo, 1502, fol. Cardinal Lorenzana's edition, Madrid, 1775, fol. Reprint in Migne (P.L., LXXXVI), Paris, 1850.

Liber Ordinum. Edited by Dom M. Férotin in Cabrol and Le Clerc's "Monumenta Ecclesiæ Liturgica", V, Paris, 1904, quarto.

Liber Orationum.—Printed in Bianchini's edition of the works of Cardinal Tommasi, Rome, 1741, fol.

Psalter, Canticles, Hymnal, and Hours.—In Lorenzana's Breviary of 1775 and the Migne reprint, from the Toledo manuscript. In the Henry Bradshaw Society's Publications, vol. XXX, edited by J. P. Gilson, London, 1905, from the British Museum manuscript

Liber Comicus.—Edited by Dom G. Morin from the Paris manuscript in "Anecdota Maredsolana", I, Maredsous, 1893.

The liturgical year

In the present printed books, the offices are divided after the Roman fashion into "Officium Canonicum per Annum" (answering to the "Officium de Tempore") and the "Sanctorale". As in the Roman books, the fixed feasts from Christmas Eve to the Epiphany (except that the Breviary puts two in the "Sanctorale") come in the "de Tempore", and the Missal, but not the Breviary, includes also St. Clement (23 Nov.), St. Saturninus (29 Nov.), St. Andrew (30 Nov.), St. Eulalia (10 Dec.), the Annunciation (18 Dec.), and St. Thomas the Apostle (21 Dec.) in the same part, though several intermediate feasts come in the "Sanctorale". In the manuscripts (e.g. in the two Libri Orationum, Add. manuscript 30852 and the Verona manuscript printed in Bianchini's edition of Thomasius, which has a very complete sequence of the year) the two parts are not distinguished, and the whole set of days, fixed and moveable, are given in one series. The "Officium per Annum" of the modern books begins with the first Sunday of Advent, as in the Roman, but the "Sanctorale" begins with Sts. Julianus and Basilissa (7 Jan.), and ends in the Missal with St. Eugenia (12 Dec.), while the Breviary includes in it also Sts. Justus and Abundus (16 Dec.), the Annunciation (18 Dec.), St. Thomas the Apostle (21 Dec.), the Translation of St. James the Great (30 Dec.), and St. Columba (31 Dec.). There are six Sundays of Advent, as there were in the Gallican and are now in the Ambrosian. The key day for Advent Sunday is therefore St. Martin (11 Nov.), as it is in the Ambrosian Rite, and, as according to the Council of Mâcon (581), it was in the Gallican, but Advent Sunday is that next after, not, as in the Roman, that nearest to the key day. Thus Advent Sunday may be on any day from 12 to 18 Nov.

The four feasts which follow Christmas Day are now the same as in the Roman Rite, including St. Thomas of Canterbury. The next day is the Translation of St. James the Great and the last day of the year is St. Columba, Virgin and Martyr, though the Calendar of the Missal includes also St. Sylvester. But, according to the Calendar of the Breviary, the twenty-ninth is "Jacobi Fratris Domini", and there is an office for his feast, as well as a direction to use the Common of one pontiff martyr for St. Thomas of Canterbury, and for the thirtieth there is an Office for the feast (translation) "Sancti Jacobi Fratris Sancti Joannis". In the Missal St. James the Less is not mentioned here in the Calendar, but the Mass of the twenty-ninth is his; there is nothing of St. Thomas, and the table of contents of the Ximenes Missal refers to the Mass of that day as "in translatione Jacobi Zebedei", which it certainly is not. There is no Mass for the Translation of St. James the Great in the printed book, though that for his martyrdom (25 July) is given as the specimen full Mass "Omnium Offerentium" instead of the Ordinary; but in Add. manuscript 30844 (tenth century) there is one which follows the Mass of St. James the Less, though by mistake it is called by the name of St. John the Evangelist. In that manuscript the days after Christmas are St. Stephen, St. Eugenia, St. James (Frater Domini), St. James the Great, St. Columba, leaving one day unoccupied. In Add. 30850, a tenth-century Liber Orationum, "De Alisione Infantum", which according to the present calendars would occupy that day (28 or 29 December), is given next after the Epiphany. In the Hymnal printed with Lorenzana's Breviary, the vacant day is occupied by St. John the Evangelist, and the rest are as in Add. 30844. The Circumcision is on 1 January. If a Sunday occurs between that day and the Epiphany it is "Dominica ante Epiphaniam". The Mass is that of the Kalends of January (i.e. New Year's Day). The three days before the Epiphany are "Jejunia in Kalendis Januarii", said to have been set apart as fasts in contemptum superstitionis gentilium, just as fasts were forbidden during Advent ob impietatem Priscillianistarum, who, denying the Incarnation, fasted at that season. There are analogous instances of this sort of fasting (or not fasting) ad lites et contentiones in the Byzantine practice of not fasting on certain days before Lent begins because of the Artziburion fast of the Armenians and the Ninevite Fast of the Jacobites and Nestorians. After the Epiphany (called also "Apparitio Domini') to Lent nine Sundays are given, the last being "Dominica ante Cineres", the rest being numbered one to eight "Post octavam Epiphaniæ".

Ash Wednesday (Feria quarta in capite jejunii) is an evident late Roman borrowing, rather clumsily inserted, for the Sunday that follows, though called "Dominica prima Quadragesimæ", has a Mass and an Office in which Alleluia is used, and at Vespers there is the well- known "Endless Alleluia" (Alleluia Perenne) hymn. In the Hymnal this hymn is entitled "Ymnus in carnes tollendas". The true liturgical Lent does not begin till the Monday after Ash Wednesday. The old Mass Lections of the Sundays in Lent have been disturbed in their order in consequence of the Gospel for the first Sunday (Christ in the Wilderness) being given to Ash Wednesday, and that of the second (The Samaritan Woman) is given to the first, that of the third (The Healing of the Blind Man) to the second, while, so as to keep the Gospel "Jam autem die festo mediante" for Mid-Lent Sunday, that of the fifth (the Raising of Lazarus) is given to the third and a new Gospel (The Good Shepherd) is given to the fifth. The sixth is Palm Sunday, called only "Dominica in Ramis Palmarum", but including, between the Prophecy and Epistle at Mass, the Traditio Symboli in the form of a "Sermo ad Populum". On Maundy Thursday there occurs the same process of removing one of two consecrated Hosts to the Altar of Repose (called monumentum and Sepulchrum) as in the Roman Rite, and there is a service ad lavandos pedes, in both cases with different words. The Washing of the Feet takes place "clausis ostiis et laicis omnibus foris projectis", and the feet of certain priests are washed by the bishop and dried by the archipresbyter. "Postea ad cenam conveniunt." On Good Friday there is a penitential service "ad Nonam pro indulgentia", which consists largely of preces interspersed with cries of various cases of the word "indulgentia" many times repeated, and contains passages similar to the Improperia of the Roman Rite, as well as lections, including the Passion according to St. Matthew. It is the remains of the solemn reconciliation of penitents, and is mentioned by the fourth Council of Toledo (633), canon vi. This is followed by the Adoration of the Cross and the Procession and Communion of the Presanctified. The Easter Eve services are similar to those of the Roman Rite: the New Fire, the Easter Candle, the Prophecies (of which there are only ten, seven of which agree more or less with those of the Roman Rite, though not all in the same order), and the Blessing of the Font. But the words used throughout are very different. Even the "Exultet" is not used, but another hymn of similar import. Before the "Benedictio Cerei" there is a "Benedictio Lucernæ", and the Litany is used for the two processions, to the Font before the Blessing and back again after it.

From Easter to Pentecost there is no peculiarity except that the numbering of the Sundays includes Easter Day and that the four days before Whit-Sunday are fasts. Formerly (e.g. in the time of St. Isidore) these fasts came after Pentecost, though they answered to rogation or litany days. Leslie conjectures that the alteration was made because of the Whit-Sunday baptisms. There is no Blessing of the Font on the vigil of Pentecost, but there are allusions to baptism in the services of the vigil and the day itself. The following Sunday only commemorates the Holy Trinity in certain of the prayers at Mass (for which there is a direction to use those of Palm Sunday which have allusions to the Trinity, instead of those for the Sunday, which are to be transferred to the following Tuesday), in the title "in die Sanctissime Trinitatis", and in the hymns in the Breviary Office. Otherwise the day, as far as there is anything defininte about it, is treated as the Octave of Pentecost and the allusions are to the Holy Spirit. Corpus Christi is kept on the following Thursday, and the Mass and Office, though naturally enough influenced by the Roman propers, are composed on a purely Mozarabic plan. In the Missal seven Sundays after Pentecost have Masses, as well as the Sunday before the fast of the Kalends of November. In the Breviary the Sundays after Pentecost are only three. There is a direction in the Breviary that if there is no Feast on any Sunday during that season, one of these three offices must be used. Two sets of three-day fasts occur in this season, one before the Feast of St. Cyprian (13 Sept.) and one before that of St. Martin (11 Nov.). They have nothing to do with either St. Cyprian or St. Martin, whose days only serve as key-days to them (cf. Holy Cross and St. Lucy, as key-days to the September and December ember-days). The November fast is called "jejunia Kalendarum Novembrium". They are really days of Litany or Rogation, and are both mentioned by St. Isidore; the September fast is evidently mentioned by the fifth Council of Toledo (can. i), though obviously by a mistake it calls it "dies Iduum Decembrium", and the November one by the Council of Gerona. In the Sanctorale there are of course a large number of Spanish saints who either do not occur at all or receive only cursory mention in the Roman Calendar, but there are also many that are common to the whole Church, and in the modern books a number of feasts, some of which were instituted after the period of the manuscripts, have been added.

There are two modern forms of the Calendar. In that prefixed to the Breviary a rather small number of days are marked, hardly any (as in the Ambrosian Calendar) during the possible Lenten period, but offices of references to the Common are given in a large appendix for a great number of other saints. In that prefixed to the Missal all these days are put in one series, as their Masses are in the body of the book. There are a good many discrepancies in the existing manuscript calendars, and it is not always quite easy to determine the exact day of some of the older feasts, but now most of the days which are common to both have been assimilated to the Roman. The Annunciation is kept twice, on 25 March and on 18 December. The last, called "Annunciatio S. Mariæ Virginis de la O", is really the "Expectatio Partus B. M. V." Its name is referred to a curious custom in the Toledan Use, according to which the whole choir sing a loud and prolonged O at Vespers on that day, to signify, it is said, the eager desire of the saints in Limbo, the Angels in Heaven, and of all the world for the birth of the Saviour. This or the Antiphons known as the "Great O's" may be the cause of the name, which is known outside Spain. The tenth Council of Toledo (656) ordered the Annunciation to be kept on that day, because 25 March came either in the Lenten or Easter period, and thus was unsuitable, and shortly afterwards St. Ildefonsus, with reference to this decree, calls it "Expectatio Puerperii Deipare". In the printed Missal the same Mass is ordered also for 25 March, but no Office is given in the Breviary. (Cf. the Ambrosian custom of keeping the Annunciation on the sixth Sunday of Advent for the same reason.) Sometimes there are other disagreements between the modern Missal and Breviary. Thus, the Decollation of St. John Baptist is given for 29 Aug. (the Roman, and also the Byzantine day) in the Missal, but for 24 Sept. (the old Mozarabic day, as appears from the manuscripts) in the Breviary. In both, 1 May is Sts. Philip and James, and the Mass is the same, mutatis nominibus, as that of Sts. Peter and Paul, while the Office is similar to that of Sts. Simon and Jude. But in the manuscripts St. Philip alone is mentioned, St. James the Less being, as we have seen, already provided with a day in Christmastide, not only in them but also in the printed books. But 1 May is also the feast of St. Torquatus and his companions, the Apostles of Spain, who naturally eclipse the other Apostles. The Sunday before the Nativity of St. John Baptist is kept as "Dominica pro adventu St. Joannis Baptistæ". As its position with regard to the general sequence of Sundays is variable, its Mass and Office are given in the Sanctorale. The classification of feasts is very simple. There are Principal Sundays, which are those of Lent and Advent, and of course Easter Day and Whit-Sunday. Feasts are "sex capparum", "quatuor capparum", and "novem lectionum", the last being also called "duarum capparum". The distribution of these titles is occasionally rather arbitrary, and the Missal and Breviary do not always agree. If a feast comes on a Principal Sunday it is transferred to the next day, unless that is a greater feast, when it is put off to the next free day. If two equal feasts fall on the same day (the example given is Sts. Philip and James and St. Torquatus), the office is that of the saint who has a proprietas (proper), unless the other is the Vocatio (patronal feast) of the church, in which case the one with a proper is transferred. If a feast comes on an ordinary Sunday, the Sunday is omitted (quia satis habebit locum per annum) and the feast is kept. During the Octaves which are kept "secundum Regulam Gregorianum", any vacant day is of the Octave, but the Office is not said solemniter except on the Octave day. If a greater feast is followed by a lesser one, the Vespers is of the greater but the last Lauda, with its prayer, is of the lesser. These rules, which do not differ in principle from those of the Roman Rite, are prefixed to the printed Breviary. Their comparative simplicity is probably more apparent than real.

The divine office

The present Mozarabic Divine Office differs from all others in several points. As a general rule, which applies to every other rite, Eastern or Western, the Divine Office may be defined as the recitation of the Psalter with accompanying antiphons, lections, prayers, canticles, etc., and the nucleus is the more or less regular distribution of the Psalter through the Canonical Hours, generally of one week. In the Mozarabic Rite there is now no such distribution of the Psalter. Psalms are used at all the Hours except Vespers—when, except in fasting time, there are none—but they are as a rule fixed psalms. In the first three weeks of Lent and during the three-day fasts before the Epiphany, St. Cyprian's Day, and St. Martin's Day, and the four-day fast before Pentecost, there are three selected psalms (or sometimes one or two psalms divided into three) at Matins, Terce, Sext, and generally at None, and usually one selected psalm at Vespers, but there is no consecutive order; some psalms are repeated many times, while others are omitted altogether. In the week after the first Sunday after the Epiphany, psalms i … xxi, xxiii, xxiv are said consecutively at Matins and Terce, three psalms or divisions of psalms at each until the Thursday, two at Terce on the Friday, and none except the usual fixed psalms on the Saturday. In the manuscripts (e.g. in the Psalter in Add. manuscript 30851) there are indications of a more regular distribution of the psalms. At Matins, which is a morning and not a night Office, there are no lessons like that of the Roman Rite and its variants, but a certain similarity of construction exists in the sets of three Antiphonæ followed by a responsory,